In this lesson we will go over the use of Quanto vs Quanti vs Quanta vs Quante in Italian to express quantity. This will be an intro lesson by looking at the song “Quanti Amori” by Gigi D’Alessio where we learn Italian by looking at the lyrics of popular songs.
Quanto – how many (masculine singular)
Quanti – how many (masculine plural)
Quanta – how many (feminine singular)
Quante – how many (feminine plural)
Notice how the ending of the word, whether it ends in an O,I,A or E will determine the gender and the quantity in Italian.
LARRY: Ok, so let’s go over… So before we get into the song, “Quanti amori” by Gigi D’Alessio, we’ll go over “Quanto”, since it’s in the name of the song.
So, we are kind of comparing contrasts of the way you can say “Quanto” and “quanti amori” is in the name of the song, but “Quanto” will be the masculine singular, will be “Quanto amore”, will be if it was “how much love”, talking singularly, so love is masculine, so “Quanto amore” will be how much love, we translate to that.
“Quanto costa” will be feminine… no, I’m sorry “Quanto costa” like how much does it cost, you will say, that’s used a lot “Quanto costa”, just, in general, you are talking about a masculine object you say “Quanto costa”.
“Quanto pane hai comprato” will be masculine singular, “how much bread did you buy”, and feminine will be “Quanta”, “Quanta” with an end in an A, as opposed to an O. So “Quanta minestra vuoi”, will be how much soup do you want.
A masculine plural will be “quanti” like the name of the song “Quanti amori”, we will use an I instead of an O for the ending, “Quanti amori” so in this case, it’s how many loves, or how many love relationships or how many love affairs, he’s talking plural.
So when you’re talking plural, is how many versus how much, in the singular. “Quanti pani hai comprato” will be how many breads did you buy, for example, that will be a masculine plural.
And then for feminine plural, “Quante minestre vuoi?”, how many soups do you want, as opposed to the singular up here, “Quanta minestra”, how much soup do you want. So, four endings on this word, O, A, I, and E by singular versus, singular masculine, singular feminine, masculine plural, feminine plural. So, just a little, quick little lesson on “Quanto” versus “Quanta”, “Quanti” e “Quante”.
